Scarcity

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Scarceness \Scarce"ness\, Scarcity \Scar"ci*ty\, n.
     The quality or condition of being scarce; smallness of
     quantity in proportion to the wants or demands; deficiency;
     lack of plenty; short supply; penury; as, a scarcity of
     grain; a great scarcity of beauties. --Chaucer.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           A scarcity of snow would raise a mutiny at Naples.
                                                    --Addison.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Praise . . . owes its value to its scarcity. --Rambler.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The value of an advantage is enhanced by its
           scarceness.                              --Collier.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Deficiency; lack; want; penury; dearth; rareness;
          rarity; infrequency.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  scarcity
       n : a small and inadequate amount [syn: {scarceness}] [ant: {abundance}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  45 Moby Thesaurus words for "scarcity":
     absence, chinchiness, chintziness, dearth, deficiency, exiguity,
     fewness, inadequacy, inadequateness, infrequence, infrequency,
     insufficiency, lack, meagerness, miserliness, need, niggardliness,
     occasionalness, paucity, poverty, rareness, rarity, restrictedness,
     scant, scant sufficiency, scantiness, scarceness, scrimpiness,
     seldomness, shortage, skimpiness, slowness, smallness, sparseness,
     sparsity, stinginess, stringency, thinness, tightness,
     uncommonness, underage, unfrequentness, uniqueness, unusualness,
     want